RELIGION AND EDUCATION.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19715, 4 September 1929, Page 15

RELIGION AND EDUCATION.

NEW ZEALAND CON-

FERENCE

OPENED IN CHRISTCHURCH

The Conference on National Religious Education, held under the auspices of the New Zealand Council of Religious Education, was opened in the Canterbury College Hall yesterday morning, when Bishop West-Watson presided over an attendance of about seventy delegates from all parts of New Zealand, representing the principal Protestant Churches.

The delegates were extended a civic welcome by the Mayor (Mr J. K. Archer), who was accompanied by the Town Clerk (Mr J. S. Neville). Mr Archer, after extending a cordial welcome to the City and province, said that from the very beginning the City of Christchureh had been very _ keen about religion and education, and it had been the wish of the pioneers to make these things the foundations of the community. They would find, then, that churches, schools, and colleges were institutions in the life of the City. The Mayor expressed his conviction that religion and education were inevitably associated with each other, and he did not see why there should be a distinction by the term "religious education." He went on to say that the problem before the conference was far more difficult than the liquor problem, and far more difficult than the problem of the relationship of Capital and Labour. He was personally a convinced and unqualified secularist as far as religious education was concerned. "Is that religious?" asked the Rev. J. F. Coursey. "I would be pleased to enter into a discussion on the subject somewhere else," answered the Mayor. "I am surprised at Mr Coursey's interjection, because I cannot imagine that my views are of any importance to your conference or to the community. I expressed my opinion simply because I have a horror of appearing hypocritical. I am here in a very friendly spirit and to welcome you to the City as the Mayor. Tf you can find a solution to this very grave problem nobody will be more satisfied than myself." Bishop West-Watson, in his introductory remarks, said that they were assembled to face one of the most serious problems of modern life. Educationists were seeking how to spread not only a wider, but a deeper, knowledge. The school was assuming a more and more important role in the development of the child. In Russia the school wa,s paramount and the homo was practically disparaged. In America, as far as ho could understand, mass thought had more influence than it had a generation ago, and the child to-day lived more outside the home circle than he did a generation ago. The child regarded the church as being much less a centre of fellowship than the school, mainly because the school was compulsory and the church was optional. It was obvious that unless the church awakened future generations would be undoubtedly materialistic. Experience abundantly proved that man could not live by bread alone. They must have some hold on the spiritual reality of life, otherwise man became not human but sub-human.

The Rev. R. M. Rybum read a survey of what was being done in New Zealand for the religious education of childhood. He added that there were, roughly, 100,000 children in New Zealand who were not reached by the religious organisations. There were 171,471 children receiving religious instruction in New Zealand, according to the 1926 census. _lt had been found that oat of 2601 schools in New Zealand, 154 were receiving religious instruction on the Nelson system, but of these only ten were in Nelson. By this means 25,080 children were reached. One outstanding fact was that the Nelson system was carried out just as much in the country as in the towns. Most of the secondary schools had some recognition of religion, and it was a striking thing that the State was helping in the secondary schools. There was not so much religious teaching in tho technical high schools. Mr G. Jj. Stafford said that in 1885 they were reaching 80,752 children, and in 1926 they were reaching 157,258 children by the Sunday Schools. The Church's responsibility for the education of children, he thought, extended from five years of age till the end of adolescence. In 1926 29.29 per cent, of the children were attending Sunday Schools, who ought to be attending. Reviewing the percentage in the intervening years, he said that in 1915 39.8 per cent, were attending Sunday Schools, but since then there had been a decrease. He had found that there was a remarkable similarity between the trade balances and the attendance at Sunday Schools. When the balance was good the attendances went up, and when they were bad they went down. To-day they were failing to reach the adolescent, and between the ages of 15 and 24 they were reaching only nine per cent, of the population. "How can we reach the great number of the children and people who require religious education?— That extra twothirds we are unable to reach 1" he asked in conclusion.

The subject for the afternoon, "Religion and Education," was introduced by Mr Gordon McKenzie (chairman of the Christian Students' Movement), who said that the main business of education was to foster spiritual values. Education did not consist merely in adorning the memory, and in enlightening the understanding. Life was not bounded by the physical. Even science was recognising that, and was becoming more humble. A purely intellectual education had a purely disintegrating effect. Ones of the great curses of religious instruction was the too enthusiastic teaching of religion. That, indeed, was more noticeable in church schools, and more particularly girls' church schools. The boy was more loyal to bis school than his church, and if they could make his school his church, they would be going a long way towards solving matters. The question whether religion should find a definite place in the school curriculum was dealt with by the Eev. E. P. Blamires, who said that the committee was unanimous that there should be an act of worship every day, and that the teacher should be free to make any reference that he desired to * religion in connexion with any subject at all. The committee was not unanimous on the question whether the subject should have a definite place on the curriculum. The Rev. H. Williams (Opawa) said that the teaching should be directed towards glorifying God. .Religion was made up of personal relationships. He was convinced that close personal relationships, which made up sectarianism, had something very valuable. If they were going to sweep along on one great ideal, they were going to lose a great deal. The Nelson system did not appeal to him. He believed that the right method was to give to every man the right to teach what he believed.

Mr J. Reid (Balclutha) urged the conference to keep the children before it, and not to waste time on words. The Hon. Mr Isitt said that there were 100,000 children in New Zealand who were growing up practically in heathenism. The statement that there was religion in all education was really only "high-flown piffle." With all the influences of a Godly home, it was

not an easy thing to tread the straight and narrow way. If they had a practical object before them it was to get some measure of religion in education. Mr Isitt detailed the efforts to introduce religious exercises into the schools of the Dominion. Referring to the re- , commendation that teachers could be trusted in making religious references not to introduce sectarianism, he said that they had no more chance of getting an Act through for teaching in any form than they had of flying. "We are discussing an impossibility, and the sooner we come down the better," ho added. The conference then adopted the following statement:— Is the Christian Religion the Only Adequate Basis for Character? In search for a basis on which to build character we must find reality—the absolute ideal, goodness, beauty, truth. The ultimate reality is God. (1) Eeligion brings man into relation with reality as nothing else can, because it regards man as essentially a spiritual being whose life is incomplete without fellowship with God. (2) Since religion relates man to "The Spirit of the Whole," it relates him to the whole of his environment. The aim of education is to awaken and train the latent capacities of the whole personality of the child —spiritual, moral, mental, and physical. Education therefore is seriously incomplete if it neglects the development of the spiritual nature of the pupil. (3) Religion by providing this larger relationship adds value to everyday experiences, gives worth to personality and enhances the sense of the sacredness of life "which is one of humanity's moral indispensables." (4) Moral character cannot be adequately based on expediency. When the question is asked, "Why ought we to do right!" a utilitarian answer is never sufficient. The sanction for right conduct must be found in the character and purpose of a righteous God. (5) Religious emotion as well as knowledge, bearing upon the will, supplies the dynamic which enables a person to do what he knows to be right. It touches life's deepest springs, gives scope to every power and relates everything to one unifying interest. It supplies the loftiest rule, the purest motive and the supreme goal of purpose. (6) No real problem is presented by the fact that individuals of high character are to be found who make no personal profession of religion. Social conditions play a large part in the process of unifying the impulses, emotions, and sentiments in the individual personality. We are members one of another, and the stuff of character is to a large extent educed from our social heritage. Because the moral idealism associated with the highest types of religious faith is part of that heritage, the recognition of the Christian religion as the only adequate basis for character, simply makes explicit what has always been implicit in human experience.

The Bev. J. F. Coursey protested against the remarks of Mr McKenzie. Mr Coursey held that enthusiasm was a great asset, and that Christ was an enthusiast. He wanted to raise a band of converted men and women who would go forth with the Bible in their hands. They must succeed if they did this. The reports made to the conference would not get through the New Zealand Parliament in a thousand years. Speaking as n clergyman and an ex-school teacher, Mr Coursey said that some of the biggest disasters he had met were teachers who had the highest degrees. Teachers were not' riade, but were born. Tf they could secure consecrated men who had the spirit of God among them, they did not want a great deal of instruction.

The Child and the Home. The Rev. L. B. Busfield (Auckland) presided over the evening session. The first subject for discussion, The Child," was introduced by Mrs T. E. Taylor, who said that it should be realised that the years preceding adolescence were most important to the formation of habits following childhood. Habits and tendencies were moulded. These were plastic years, and were therefore the best in which to form the child's religious leanings She did not think thev should lay that orecious burden on the shoulders of the State. For actual Christian teaching the challenge came to the home and the Church, and if the home and the Church could not do it they were bankrupt indeed. But the very fact of this, and all other conferences, national and international, implied that a greater awakening had come an/1 youth's aspirations had to he fed with the spirit of life. Mrs West-Watson, representing the Mothers' Union, introduced the subject of "The Home," saying that it was the mother's glory and also her great responsibility that she was the foundation laywr of all three parts of the child's physical, the mental, and the spiritual. So many mothers seemed to find such great difficulty in beginning this teaching and to cope with this problem. The Mothers' Union had come into existence in a small country parish in England, and had spread all over the world, until to-day its membership numbered 500,000.

Mrs J. S. Elliott (League of Mothers) said that a normal child would look to its mother, consciously or unconsciously, for everything, and it would base its religious impressions on the conduct of its parents towards religion. One of the main objects of the League of Mothers was to help parents to realise their great responsibility. They sought entirely to be .in educative body, working through the home. They would like to do for the child's spiritual welfare what the Plunket Society did for its physical welfare.

The Rev. A. H. Acheson emphasised the problem of the adolescent in the home, which he thought was a far bigger one and of even more vital importance. It was easy enough to keep the young children in the home, but how were they going to keep a hold on the adolescent? Very largely in the minds of a great many people to-day was that religion was a childish matter rather than a child-like matter. They thought it had too much to do with the child and not enough with the adult. The Rev. R. M. Ryburn said that environment of a home was hindering the small amount of work that was being done on Sundays. He hoped that resolutions would go forward drawing attention to the need of the home helping the Church and supporting very strongly indeed the gooa work of the Mothers' Union and the Mothers' League.

Mr J. Reid asked if thev had as a Church taken the child as a responsible task A child cam© from, say, a cultured homo and got its first inkling of God in a Sunday school, a building which was very often an abomination—dirty old barns, tumbledown porches, and old restnes were used. Tn one place he had seen the verger was complaining about having to pick up cigar butts and empty bottles in preparation for the next day's Sunday school. ''l would make a Sunday school a place where a little child's thoughts are entwined with beauty," he said* "Every penny put in for child work is remembered by God in Heaven." The chairman said that the children were the builders of the home and their presence acted as a very strong deterrent to wrong-doing on the part of the parents. He thought also that children were the builders of society Their helplessness was a strong argument for co-operation in social lifeHe strongly believed also that children

were the religious leaders of the world. A child led its nation. Bishop West-Watson said that they seemed to be getting a little more vision that evening. If the Church really could not get out of its entrenchments and could not make a forward move, then the world might turn and look somewhere else; but they believed that that was not so. They hoped that God would lead their collective mind to something that perhaps they had not thought of and that would lead them to a solution of their problems. The conference will be continued today.